by Willa Okati
Dominic stared at him. One corner of his mouth turned up. “You don’t know, do you?” he asked. “Everything you’ve done so far has just been a lucky guess!” He turned and stalked away, dragging his hands through his overlong hair, then slapping his arms across his chest. “He knows nothing,” Pedri heard him mutter. “Nothing, and everything.”
Rather than returning, Dominic walked forward into a casting circle on the floor. An old shadow lantern rested in the middle of it. Although his feet were bare, he drew one back and gave the old brass a solid kick, sending it ricocheting off one wall of the cave, where the glass panels shattered and the rest twisted into an unusable lump.
Pedri shivered, excited by the violence. His cock gave a wonderfully painful twitch against its ring and chain, jerking up in search of something warm and preferably wet. “Come back,” he whispered, tempting as the snake in the Garden. “You know you want to, Dominic. Come and get me. Take me. Do whatever you want.”
“No.” Dominic stood still as a statue, his head tilted in the direction of the fallen lantern. “I won’t. Not after this long.”
“You won’t be able to help yourself. This is Lust Magick.” Pedri’s voice strengthened with determination. “You’re the Master. You know when the enchantment fills the air.”
“Enchantment.” Dominic dropped his head briefly. “He talks about enchantment to me, as if he knows anything.” He shivered once. “The shadow pictures were wrong,” he said quietly, as if to himself. “Mirror images. Everything’s reversed. I should have seen. Should have known. Eros, what a fool you’ve made of me. Is this your payback? Are you laughing at me now?”
He whirled back around to Pedri, who kept his face serious, except for the tempting gleam he knew shone in his eyes. “You’re the one,” Dominic said hoarsely. “My replacement.”
His what? Pedri frowned. “I haven’t come to --”
“No. You came to learn what I could teach you. But you really don’t know anything, do you?” Dominic stalked back toward him. “Only one,” he whispered, right up in Pedri’s face. “When one conquers, another falls.” He dropped to his knees. “So it was, so it is, and so shall it ever be.” Dominic cupped his erection. “Lust isn’t about forcing passion on others, ‘apprentice.’ Lust is about being vulnerable to take the passion inside yourself. To Lust after something means you’re willing to do whatever it takes, and give up that piece of yourself that says no, don’t, stop.” He brought his hand up to touch Pedri’s face, fingers trailing down much as he’d done before. His eyes flashed with anger and… something else. Lust. Pedri recognized the look with a start.
“What did the shadow lantern do?” he asked through dry lips. “Show you the future?”
“In everything but glorious color, but I read it wrong.”
“What did it show you?” Pedri wanted to know.
“This.” Dominic brought his mouth down on Pedri’s again, hard and punishing, and then, his clever fingers unhooking the chains from Pedri’s piercings and rings, set his cock free. “And this,” he whispered, going to his knees. He was just the right height to… “And this,” he said, leaning forward.
Sucking Pedri’s cock into his mouth.
Pedri gave a gasp, bucking hard as his bonds would let him. Even if he’d thought Dominic was talented when kissing, he’d never felt anything like this blow job before. Job? Dominic performed the act like the Master he was, sucking Pedri’s cock down his throat and swallowing hard, squeezing Pedri without mercy until Pedri cried out, loud and hoarse. He withdrew then, lashing each inch with his tongue until he reached the golden ring, then seized it between his teeth and gave the metal a hard tug, pulling at the still-tender flesh. Driving Pedri closer to an edge he was already about to fall over.
“Wait,” Pedri gasped, forgetting for a moment how to work the Magick that would set him free. “Let me -- I want to --”
“No!” Dominic looked up at him, face hot with a mix of emotions Pedri couldn’t begin to identify. “This is my show. My final performance.” Again, he tilted that halfway grin, wry and dry as an aged white wine. “Let the curtain go down with a standing ovation.” He licked at the tip of Pedri’s cock, taking the pearls of pre-come bubbling out onto his tongue. “You taste so untried,” he muttered. “How could you possibly have…”
Pedri struggled for a clear head. “I still don’t understand,” he managed.
“You will soon.” Dominic dipped his head again, taking Pedri’s cock into his mouth. With every lick and every flick he drove Pedri harder and faster, beating the kind of submission into him that no one had ever managed before. Loosing a cry, Pedri gave himself up to the sensations. He let himself writhe as much as he was able to, even pumping his hips back and forth into Dominic’s mouth -- and Dominic allowed him the action without a word in return.
Then again, his mouth was full.
Pedri allowed himself to groan and moan, filling the cave with his cries of passion as he climbed higher and higher. The candlelight, coming from a dozen tapers, blurred together in his vision until all he could see was a pure white blaze.
The orgasm hit him like a thunderbolt from above, startling him into letting go of the Magick that held him in place. Dominic caught him easily as a feather as he began to tumble down, the fall not stopping the jets of semen pumping from his cock. The Magus swallowed it all, sucking for more, as he gripped Pedri easily by the hips. He even slid his hands around to part Pedri’s ass cheeks and probe at his hole with one finger, driving another spasm out of Pedri just when he thought he had no more to give.
Almost carefully, Dominic eased Pedri down to rest by the side of the Wheel. He stood up, wiping a hand across his mouth. Pedri struggled to look up at the Magus, straining to see, and then to understand his expression. Anger chased sorrow chased confusion chased madness, all in rapid-fire order, and then again.
“You don’t understand,” Dominic said, “but you’ve won. You damned little spitfire, you’ve won.”
“I don’t understand,” Pedri managed. He struggled to get to his knees, trying to rise. Dominic stood back, neither helping nor hindering. Balancing on one joint, Pedri lifted his hand for help.
Dominic took that hand in his palm and raised Pedri to his feet. Pedri was too short for them to meet on the eye level, so he tilted his head up, still breathing hard, waiting for the Magus’ word. He smelled the scent of sex, and glanced down to see Dominic still hard, although leaking a clear stream of fluid. “You didn’t come,” he said.
“And that’s all the dignity I have left to call my own.” Dominic searched Pedri’s face again, and shook his head. “I said it before. Lust Magick isn’t about forcing passion on someone. It’s about opening yourself up to take it deep inside. Being willing to accept gives you the ability to give with open hands. Do you know what my would-be apprentices have done, when they’ve managed to catch me out in the open? No one besides you has had the lust for power to make their way down into my cave. Not ever. Those wanna-be students demanded I teach them. They all had balls, oh, yes, but none of them were willing to surrender themselves up for me to do what I wanted with. They all played it close to the chest. None of them understood.”
Dominic placed his hand against his naked, sweating chest for a moment, then drew it back. A small emerald stone rested in the palm of his hand, shaped roughly like the representation of a heart. “There,” he said raggedly, forcing it into Pedri’s fingers and wrapping them closed around the gem. “You’ve won. Do you hear me? You’ve won. I’ve lost. You wielded Lust better than I did, and you’ve earned your Mastery.”
“I -- what?” Pedri struggled to understand. “But not so easily, surely?”
“Easy!” Dominic barked a laugh. “This cave is yours now. I’ll move on in the morning. In the meantime, give me one last night to sleep in my own bed.” He walked away, his posture stiff and his hands curled into fists. “Welcome to your new powers, Master of Lust,” he said, flat as before. “I hope you enjoy yourself. Now g
et the fuck out of my sight until daybreak.”
Chapter Five
So I’m a Master of Lust Magick now, Pedri thought to himself as he sat alone in one corner of Dominic’s cave. It’s funny. Never mind thinking I would feel different. I had expected a little more hoopla, you know? Some sort of fanfare. A “well done, good and faithful servant.” Not a blow job and… this.
He unfolded his palm to gaze at the small emerald heart. “Like Koschei the Deathless,” he said quietly, so as not to wake up the self-declared fallen Master, who’d rolled himself up in a blanket in a broad, deep wall niche and turned his back to Pedri. Pedri guessed the man was asleep, although he had no real way of telling. No snoring, for one.
Tomnas had snored. A little. Pedri had always teased him about the problem, thinking his frequent bedmate’s habit had been cute. Tomnas, where are you now? he wondered, clenching and unclenching his hand around the emerald heart. “You’d get the emerald heart joke. I don’t think he would.” He, of course, being Dominic. Pedri didn’t think Dominic was or would be in the mood for humor -- probably not for a long time.
I defeated him, and I’m still not entirely sure how. And why did it have to be a contest? This isn’t TV. Last time I checked, there didn’t have to be only One. There are dozens of Lust Magick Masters in the United States alone. Do they all do it this way? A challenger, a defeat, and then what? Do they move on to another discipline?
Or do they just… fade away?
Pedri squeezed the emerald heart tight in his fist one last time, feeling the rough-cut edges bite into the meat of his palm. A little pain with what was meant to be pleasure. He liked things raw around the edges. He always had. But this? This went above and beyond anything he’d ever even thought about before.
The Emerald Heart of Koschei the Deathless, Pedri thought, flexing the muscles in his hand. A sorcerer who kept his heart inside a box inside an egg inside a chest inside a stone… and now it’s mine.
Tomnas, are you as lucky as me? I wonder… and I wonder why I don’t feel very lucky at all. Idly, as if he were playing with a toy in practice, Pedri summoned one of the thin gold chains he’d decorated his body with earlier, and strung the small green jewel on a loop. He hung the newly-created pendant around his neck -- and he still didn’t feel any different.
Tomnas, what would you do?
Pedri loosed a quiet sigh and looked up at the “fallen” mage, sleeping or pretending to sleep so they wouldn’t have to talk. He guessed he couldn’t blame the guy. Who’d want to talk to your mortal enemy, even if you had to share quarters until dawn?
Why did Dominic have to leave, though?
Thoughts about why and how and what chased themselves around and around in Pedri’s mind as he toyed with his new necklace, occasionally shaking his head in wonder. He looked up from time to time, watching Dominic’s back.
I wonder… With a thought, Pedri slipped the blanket away from Dominic’s hip, revealing his backside and a long, firmly toned length of leg. He twitched the covering away from the rest of the Magus. No response at first, then a small shudder and Dominic rolled tighter into himself, as if he didn’t even have the heart to fight.
Of course he doesn’t have the heart. I have it right here.
And I think I know what to do, now. Or what I want to do.
Like Dominic said -- fuck the rules. The only difference is, I do play nicely with others.
Standing up on feet that were still bare, he shivering a little. The cold cave air clung to his warmer body as he moved. Pedri slowly crossed the cavern to Dominic’s sleeping niche. Tall enough for a man to stand in and wider than a queen-sized mattress, a deep hole in the wall, it was the perfect place for a man to sleep. Sleep, yes, and do other things.
A small smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, Pedri reached out with his own hands and took hold of the blankets, pulling them back up over Dominic’s body. He even tucked in the edges, then ran a caress down the hard line of the man’s back.
Dominic twitched. “I don’t need your comfort,” he said in a hard voice which betrayed the fact that he hadn’t been asleep at all, not for one minute.
“I know,” Pedri said simply. He watched Dominic for another minute, judging the length of the man’s legs and the way he lay, then decided, what the hell? What he had in mind was worth a try. If he failed, he failed. But if he succeeded, he’d win more than his Mastery at Lust Magick.
Which he still couldn’t quite believe.
Nothing ventured…
Moving slowly, careful not to disturb the tensely hunched-up Magus, Pedri lowered himself into the sleeping niche, going down on his hands and knees. He crawled a few feet forward, until he felt the press of Dominic’s feet automatically trying to push him out of the way. Pedri stopped right there, and curled up into a ball.
He waited for Dominic to react, counting down the seconds in his head. One… two… three…
“What the hell do you think you’re doing now?” the Magus demanded, kicking hard enough to hurt. Luckily, Pedri liked a little pain in almost every circumstance, and Dominic hadn’t been rough enough to bruise.
Instead of jerking away, as Dominic had probably intended for him to do, Pedri pressed his cheek against the man’s foot. “Cover me with your blanket,” he said softly. “Let me stay with you until the morning light.”
There was a moment’s silence, and then a dry laugh from Dominic. Pedri listened to him, and decided he wanted to hear something else from the Magus. A surprised chuckle, a delighted giggle, a full-throated guffaw, anything but this frayed old sound that seemed to have worn out all its mirth three hundred years ago.
No matter what happens, I won’t let the Magick twist me like this, Pedri thought. He resisted the urge to reach out and touch Dominic. And it’s not too late for him. I know it. If he’ll just cooperate, just let me in…
“Ruth and Boaz,” Dominic said after a brief silence. “That’s fair. I quoted the Bible at you earlier. But Ruth had a good reason for asking Boaz to cover her up and keep her safe. Lots of nasty men out reaping, and they wouldn’t have minded a little raping. She needed his protection. His blanket. The way our game is played, I should be crouching at your feet, not the other way around.”
“I don’t understand everything yet,” Pedri replied steadily. “I hardly understand anything, Dominic. You’re calling me a Master, and maybe I have the power, but I don’t know how to use a drop of the energies running through me.”
“You’ll figure them out.” Dominic shoved Pedri again.
Pedri refused to be budged. “Not without your help.” He paused. “If I’m the Master now, then you’re under an obligation to answer any questions I have, aren’t you?”
Dominic shrugged one shoulder. “And I’m sure you have hundreds.” He shifted, pillowing his cheek on one arm. A lock of brown hair fell into his eyes, but he didn’t blow the tuft away. “Go on. Ask.”
“Who made these rules? They’re idiotic. No one ever told me, not even when I told the Council I wanted to specialize in Lust Magick, that there would be some kind of a battle and only one man left standing. Did they have their heads up their asses, or do you?”
Dominic chuckled. Like that, Pedri thought in satisfaction. “I’ve had plenty of things up my ass,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “Never was flexible enough to get my head in there, although I have had to extract my foot from a few posteriors along the road.”
“I figured as much.” Pedri tugged at the blanket’s hem. “Cover me,” he demanded. “That was a request, not a statement. If we go by what you’re telling me, you have to obey.”
That earned him a heavy sigh. “If you’re so desperate to curl up next to a pair of cold feet…” Dominic sat up, untucked the blanket, and threw it over Pedri’s head. “There. Are you satisfied?”
“Not exactly.” Covered by the warm, woolly material, Pedri began a slow crawl up Dominic’s side, all the way up to the arm he had flung out, and rested his own head on the appendage
, facing down the man he’d come to see. Eye to eye at last -- or at least until Dominic closed them and turned slightly away.
“Look at me,” Pedri said. “Also not a statement. More of a command.” When Dominic hesitated, he pushed. “Go on, do it. You know you have to.”
Rolling his eyes, Dominic returned to his previous position. He faced Pedri down, his expression unguarded enough -- just for a moment -- that Pedri saw the doubt, confusion and fear crossing the man’s features. Pedri nodded slowly. He could get those emotions. Hell, he was feeling all of them, and more.
And he wanted some answers.
Quickly, not telegraphing his movement until it was too late, Pedri seized Dominic by the chin as he’d been grabbed before, holding steady when the Magus would have wrenched away. “These rules,” he said emphatically when Dominic had stilled enough to glare at him, “are idiotic. They don’t mean a thing to me, and I don’t know why they do to you. Didn’t you say ‘fuck the rules’? Why are you obeying them now?”
Dominic looked pained, as if Pedri were rubbing salt into a wound. “Do I really have to explain this?” He sighed. “I didn’t care about the rules when I was Master. Who was to keep me from doing what I wanted? But I’m not Master now. Not anymore.”
Pedri shook his head. “But you’re still a Magus. I’m just a Demi. All I wanted was to be an apprentice, and I said so, but you handed me the keys to your kingdom. Why?” When Dominic didn’t answer, he gave the man’s chin a shake. “Why, Dominic? Tell me.”
Dominic gazed at Pedri for the space of a few breaths. Something strange, like tenderness, crossed his features. He reached up to ruffle his hand through Pedri’s tangled blond hair, probably sticking up in a hundred different directions. “You are so beautiful,” he said, his voice so quiet that at first Pedri thought he hadn’t heard the man right. “If I had to lose it all, I’m glad it was to someone who’s pretty enough to wear the crown.”
Pedri lay still and let himself be petted. “You can have it all back. The keys, the throne, the crown, the lantern, whatever else I own now. Take it, and keep me as your apprentice. That’s all I want.”